PPRuNe Playmate of the Month
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Donington, Lincolnshire
Age: 69
Posts: 593
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Helli-gurl
These things do happen, and far more frequently then people realise. Remember that in the professions people in certain positions, let us say, HR, for example, tend to know their opposite numbers in other organisations. Informal telephone conversations do take place and are beneficial to both parties. It's very common in the legal profession too. A case of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours", if you like. You can rest assured nothing will be recorded.
My employer is perfectly within its rights to call me at home if I go sick repeatedly - the sickness absence policy is spelled out in great detail in the Handbook. I could also be sent for examination by any number of specialists at my employer's expense if absences were persistent. And the bottom line is that if someone is unable to do the job they were employed to do then the employment can be terminated after all procedures have been complied with.
You can say its illegal - actually it's probably truer to say its against the spirit of legislation rather than the letter. If one has an exemplary employment record, one really has rather less to fear than our friend FF and her theft from her employer. Because that's what sickies are.